Fighting to keep up with the fittest man on earth

Dean Karnazes was running 50 marathons in 50 days  Jeremy Taylor tried to keep in touch on the 23rd

I should have seen it coming. “Jeremy, you’ve run marathons,” the voice on the phone said. “Yes,” I answered cautiously.

“And don’t you run up mountains or something?” “Well, I do a bit of hill running and I . . .”

“That’s great, we have the perfect assignment for you — next Monday.”

Five days later I’m standing in clapped-out trainers on a pavement in Tulsa, Oklahoma, waiting for a man called Dean Karnazes. Often described as the fittest man on earth, he’s a competitive triathlete, surfer, mountain biker and snowboarder. He has run a marathon to the South Pole, won the Badwater Ultramarathon across 135 miles of Death Valley, and once ran continuously for 81 hours. When he’d finished he had clocked up 350 miles.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: “Isn’t that enough?” Well, no. Like Forrest Gump, Karnazes can’t stop running, and now he has embarked on his greatest challenge to